The Structures Laboratory was established in 1991 as one of the experimental facilities of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Patras. In 2001 the lab was moved into a new building with unique characteristics – the lab still constitutes one of the largest installations in Europe and the largest and better equipped in Greece.

This experimental facility focuses on testing engineering structures and comprises a strong floor and two strong walls. The system of the strong floor-reaction walls is used for cyclic or hybrid (pseudo-dynamic) testing of earthquake-excited components, subassemblies or small structures. Its versatile configuration may be used for a variety of other test configurations of structures.